Wigan History Shop And Careers Office

WIGAN

SD5805SW RODNEY STREET 24-1/8/59 (North West side) 15/06/88 Wigan History Shop and Careers Office (Formerly Listed as: RODNEY STREET Wigan Central Library)

GV II

Public library, now shop and office. 1877, by Alfred Waterhouse. Red brick in English bond, with dressings of sandstone and patent ceramic, graduated slate roof. T-plan, with entrance, staircase and offices in block facing Rodney Street, library in long rear wing parallel to Library Street. Elizabethan Revival style with some Gothic features. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with basement and attics. The entrance front has a large 2-centred arched doorway to the left, of pale patent ceramic in Gothic style, with set-in colonnettes, moulded arch and a gable with a roundel containing a relief profile of Dante; above this, a pair of narrow transomed and cusped windows with linked hood-moulds; to the right, a stepped pair of cusped lancet stair windows with hood-moulds, and a 4-light 1st-floor window; and twin gables each with a 3-light mullioned attic window. The facade to Library Street is a symmetrical composition consisting of a 4-bay rear wing set back from the street between the gable of the front range and a balancing projected gable to the right: the former has a chimney-stack extruded from 1st floor level with a carved coat of arms in the base, and triple cylindrical chimneys; the wing has buttresses with offsets, tall 2-light windows at ground floor, 3-light mullioned windows at 1st floor with shouldered lights, a corbel table, a parapet and 3-light dormers with hipped roofs. Basement area protected by wrought-iron railings with dogbars, scrolled panels and triple spikes. INTERIOR: original balconies, shelving, decorative iron and wooden fencing; good staircase with iron balustrade; aisled upper floor with galleries, arch-braced roof trusses. An unusually unaltered municipal library by a well-known architect.

Listing NGR: SD5837005459